Free Savage Seduction: A Dire Wolves Mission (The Devil's Dires Book 3) by Ellis Leigh

overnight stays. A lucky find for sure as they waited to find a true home.
    Charmeine led Ethan to the first bathroom in the hall. Toilet, sink, small shower stall. Again, not ideal but workable.
    “This one didn’t get cleaned. I’ll call the company first thing in the morning.” Ethan scrunched his nose and regarded the room with distaste. Not that Charmeine blamed him.
    “There are children moving in here tonight. That won’t do.” Charmeine looked over the grayed sink, the cobwebs hanging from the light fixture, and the toilet with mold in the bowl. This was the first bathroom off the entrance and would likely be a busy one. She couldn’t leave the room as filthy as it was. “Hand me the gloves, please.”
    Ethan looked positively aghast but handed Charmeine a pair of plastic hospital-type gloves from the box they’d found in a cabinet when they first walked through the space. He had wanted to throw them away, but Charmeine had known they’d come in handy and made him carry a pair at all times as they set up the space. She’d been right.
    “Can’t we pay someone to do this?” Ethan stepped into the hall, leaving the door open.
    “How can I ask the people who will be living here to clean up after themselves if I’m not willing to scrub, too?” Charmeine grabbed a scrub brush and some abrasive cleaner from the bag of supplies she’d been carrying with her and went to work.
    Ethan could hate the menial labor all he wanted, but she relaxed as she cleaned. This was what she loved to do. Not scrubbing toilets necessarily, but taking care of people. The ones terrorized for no good reason by a band of militants trying to destroy something that didn’t need to be destroyed. She’d worked for years to get to a point where the surviving victims trusted her, followed her guidance, and let her help them restart their lives. The Hunters still chased them, and sometimes they came awfully close to destroying what Charmeine had built, but she’d managed to stay one step ahead of them through bribes, spies, and sheer will to survive.
    But this was it—the last time she’d be setting up a temporary space. Finn had been working hard to cement a steady income, and she would find the perfect place for the refugee families to create a pack home. They would come together to find safety in the number of members and the tight pack they’d form. And with Finn’s network of muscle and his insiders all over the city, they’d know if any Hunters stepped foot in Fort Worth. They would live their lives in defiance of the Apex Hunters, and hopefully, Finn’s men could begin hunting them down. Turn the tables. Destroy the handful who’d obliterated so many lives.
    Her back ached and her arms burned as she scrubbed the filthy shower stall, but it was a good pain. The kind that came from working hard. The people who needed this rescue had traveled for days, looping and circling and taking back roads to stay off of the Hunters’ grid. If those men, women, and children could put up with such lengthy drives, she could put up with a little soreness from cleaning.
    So she scrubbed. And she damn near whistled while she worked.
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    C harmeine lumbered up the steps to Finn’s house, hanging on to the handrail for the first time since she moved in. She ached all over, but the happiness burning bright within her made the pain worth the reward. Tonight, eight refugee shifters would sleep at the rescue. They had beds, new linens, clean facilities, and the start of a new life. The alarm Finn had installed would give them all an extra sense of security, something they needed after years of dealing with the Hunters. Altogether, it had been a phenomenal day. Exhausting, though. Charmeine was ready for a shower, a hot meal, and her bed. But when she finally made it to the top step and pushed open the door, she knew the night would not go as she’d hoped.
    Her mate stood in the hallway, his back to her, unaware of her presence.
    Tall and